Losing 100 Pounds ... or More

Monday, June 24, 2013

These are reminders for me - if it helps anyone else so much the better!

You can safely aim to lose 1 percent of your body weight per week; a person weighing 250 pounds should aim for a 2.5-pound loss per week, eating about 1,250 calories less per day. How long it will take to lose 100 pounds varies so you should develop weekly and monthly goals that will help you track your progress and avoid becoming overwhelmed or discouraged. Nutritional goals might include eating four servings of fruit or veggies every day of the week or eating a healthy breakfast every day that includes a low-fat protein.

Counting calories is going to be a part of this process. If you want to lose a pound a week, you have to cut out 3,500 calories, or roughly 500 calories a day. You never want to eat fewer than 1,200 calories a day. You can always increase your physical activity, however. Counting calories involves not just the food you eat, but also the calories you burn through exercise. Keep a journal of what you ate, how much you exercised, and your thoughts and feelings at those times, and limit yourself to one weekly weigh-in to avoid focusing too much on the scale. Since anyone can slip up from time to time, getting motivated about keeping your food journal up-to-date is a very important step in successful weight loss.

Good nutrition is also important. Many people who want to lose weight are used to eating foods that are high in calories and low in nutrition. The challenge is to practice the reverse: Learn to eat the correct portions of foods that are low in calories but high in nutrition, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy.

Being physically active is an essential part of weight loss. If you have a lot of joint pain, start with chair or water-based exercises. Try walking short distances and gradually building up your endurance. Sign up to walk for a favorite charity of yours as an added incentive. Activity goals might include being able to get down on the floor and play with your children or grandchildren or being able to walk around the mall or grocery store without feeling short of breath.

There are many reasons why it is important to drink water:
•The process of burning calories requires an adequate supply of water in order to function efficiently; dehydration slows down the fat-burning process.
•Burning calories creates toxins (think of the exhaust coming out of your car), and water plays a vital role in flushing them out of your body.
•Dehydration causes a reduction in blood volume; a reduction in blood volume causes a reduction in the supply of oxygen to your muscles; and a reduction in the supply of oxygen to your muscles can make you feel tired.
•Water helps maintain muscle tone by assisting muscles in their ability to contract, and it lubricates your joints. Proper hydration can help reduce muscle and joint soreness when exercising.
•A healthy weight loss plan includes a good amount of fiber. But while fiber is normally helpful to your digestive system, without adequate fluids it can cause constipation instead of helping to eliminate it.
•Drinking water with a meal may make you feel full sooner and therefore satisfied eating less.
How much water you drink varies from person to person. If you eat a healthy diet, about 20 percent of your water will come from the foods you eat. There is a very good calculator that takes into account a number of factors at: nutrition.about.com/library/blwatercalculator.htm

Sometimes trying to lose weight just seems overwhelming. You might feel as though you don't have the heart to stay in the weight-loss fight. But it's not always your heart that keeps you from success — sometimes it's all in your head. One of the main reasons that diets fail is because people approach weight loss the wrong way. You need to get rid of all-or-nothing thinking and all-or-nothing acting. Set small, realistic goals instead of big, sweeping ones. Small decisions and exchanges — like eating only half of a cookie instead of a whole one or adding a few short, quick walks to your overall exercise program — are what ultimate lead to weight loss.

Another mental obstacle people face is giving up on themselves. Many of us are emotional eaters. For us it is also important to consider other things that can affect our plans, such as: stress, your sense of fulfillment, your work and home environment, and people in your life who may be sabotaging your best diet efforts. You need to find non-food ways of dealing with these issues.

The trigger that makes you realize you don't lose weight through a diet, but through a lifestyle change, is different for everyone. Drastic dieting can be a vicious cycle that leaves people angry, depressed, frustrated, and finally just giving up. But if you learn a healthy way to approach weight loss, both mentally and physically, you can ultimately find success.